After the Normandy
by Akeeni
Summary: A follow up to 'After Sovereign'. This briefly deals with Garrus' time on Omega, trying to exist after working on the Normandy. Mainly set the night of his reuinion with Shepard. Rated M for smut and violence.


**After the Normandy.**

**I appreciate the comments for "After Sovereign". It was my first fanfic, and I have been spurred on to continue the story. Can't just leave Garrus broken hearted, can we? I took a bit of an artistic licence with Garrus' time on Omega, trying to work with what little information we are given.**

**I hope you enjoy it **

Garrus had started thinking about her again. During his time on Omega he had pined for her less and less, but lately she had crept back into his head like she had never even left. He rested his sniper rifle on his leg and rubbed the coarse plate of his forehead. He hadn't slept in days and in the last few hours she had occasionally appeared next to him, shooting down the men who tried to cross the bridge to him.

Now Shepard wore her N7 helmet and her suit was slightly singed. She fired twice, and skilfully popped the heat sink. Chuckling, she looked over to him and he saw her eyes smile at him through her glass visor. He smiled back at her as best as he could. He was about to say something to her when her eyes widened with fear and her rifle dropped to the floor with a crash. Gasping, she grasped at the back of her suit. He could hear her breath getting shallower as the air hissed out of the back of the suits oxygen supply. She fell backwards and frantically squirmed to reach the unit, but her last breath drew ragged and her body started to give up and go slack. He wanted to run to her but there was something in the way. Tali beat her fists on the side of the rescue pod, screaming Shepard's name, her voice distorted from her suits audio unit. Garrus tried to open the door of the pod but as he stood up, he fell to the floor of his seedy apartment in Omega's residential district.

He needed to stop falling asleep. But he was alone in this apartment, and he had to keep watch. There was no time to sleep. He would sleep when they finally managed to cross the bridge and kill him. Then he would join Shepard and no longer be witness to her agonizing death. He checked the gauge on his rifle and crouched back down at his post, looking out of a spacious window with the best view of the narrow bridge separating him from three separate gangs out for his blood. He didn't need the scope to see what was going on, his eyes were still sharp. No one was coming. There certainly were a lot of people down there behind their hastily made barricade, but no one was trying to cross the bridge. He frowned. What were they planning? He hoped they would hurry up...he was risking falling asleep again while he waited for them to get their act together.

Garrus started firing shots at the sentries located just in front of the bridge. Just letting them know he was still alive. However, although he wouldn't admit it, he would do anything to keep from looking back into his apartment. The last of his men had died about 30 hours ago, and his body was now freshly wrapped in a military standard shroud along with the other nine men that had been slaughtered there by the cowardly thugs now trying to cross the bridge. He should have been there to protect them. He shouldn't have been left alive again.

It was in these last few hectic days that he had begun to think of her again. Since he had come to Omega and recruited his men, he had been fighting the good fight like he always wanted. He dreamt less and less of her death and he was almost at peace with himself imagining that, right now, she would have been proud of him. Garrus firmly believed Shepard would have been pleased that he gave up on C-SEC and took matters into his own hands. Building his confidence and making his own path, he had almost been ready to move on.

But then, all hell had broken loose. One of his men sold them out to the gangs and now he was left broken, exhausted and surrounded by the corpses of his friends. He had slept since then, but only once. He dreamt of her being thrown from the cracked husk of the Normandy and he decided he would rather risk madness than go back to that again. After the third cycle of no sleep and being constantly on edge, Shepard had appeared beside him, stroking his fringe, telling him it would not be long now. In the last few hours, she had joined him in shooting down the mercs. Hallucination or not, he was so happy to see her smile again. In the back of his mind, he wished the mercs could finally get across the bridge and put him out of his misery. Maybe he would see her again. He heard Ash talk about Heaven, back on the Normandy. Somewhere good humans went when they died. Garrus wasn't a particularly religious Turian, but he found himself hoping more and more that when they came across to finally get him, he would be reunited with his love in the human ideal of Heaven.

He had tried to make a new life where he did not constantly think of a dead human who was completely oblivious to his feelings for her. He had almost succeeded. Garrus had almost moved on and he had lived to her example, as best as he could. He just hoped she would forgive him for how badly he ruined it in the end.

When Garrus had arrived on Omega, he was still the young, hot headed C-SEC officer that had first stepped aboard the Normandy. The days he spent hunting Saren, then Sovereign and then watching his commander being thrown from the Normandy out into the nothingness of space had not changed him completely. All he experienced aboard the Normandy only enhanced his desire to abandon the rules and work on his own terms.

His first few weeks there, he watched and he listened. He frequented Omega's dirty nightclubs and spied on back alleys and underground lairs. Omega was full of lawless gangs, but a few people stood out as the ringleaders. Garrus even recognised some of the names from his days in C-SEC.

As much as it made him ashamed, he spent a lot of time with the Asari dancers. The memory they brought back to him was uncomfortable, to say the least, but they sure knew a lot about the big players. And they were more than happy to share their stories with the kind and mysterious Turian that seemed to have a large credit account. They made the occasional advance towards him, but he could only decline. He was not willing to put himself in that position again. He knew that any intimate action with a female bearing resemblance to a human form would only bring back the fantasies that ran wild in his head the last time he...well...partook in such action. Shepard's death was still fresh in his mind. He could not think of her like that again.

Soon enough, Garrus was too busy to even think of sex. While watching the dregs of Omega, he had noticed more than one person with a certain disdain for the way Omega was run. It was not long before he had recruited the first few men for his own team. Their first missions went almost unnoticed by the thugs. Interrupting supply drops, informing innocent marks that they had been targeted by the gangs and disrupting comm channels. The more they meddled, the more the gangs got suspicious. His team had grown and he had some men with specialised expertise. They began hitting the Mercs in less subtle ways and soon enough, they finally figured out they had been targeted.

Garrus wanted to make it really hit home. He organised the biggest and boldest mission yet. A fellow Turian, Kortain, helped him develop a plan to make the gangs know damn sure they were going to answer for their crimes. Kortain was focused and determined, and almost rivalled Garrus in tactical brilliance. He listened in on their channels endlessly, and learnt of a meeting between two separate gangs receiving a supply of weapons from an off world smuggling ring that was to be divided between them. Garrus and Kortain stayed up all night after hearing the transmission, devising their master plan. They were joined by Kortain's younger sibling, Akeeni. Kortain guarded her with everything he had, and it was normal to see her at their base. She had recently come of age, and was searching for a male to mate with for the first time, but Kortain crowded around Akeeni so often and snapped at other males, Turian or otherwise, if they even looked at her for too long. He had a right. This was Omega, and no one could be trusted. Kortain and Garrus knew that more than anyone so he let Akeeni hang around. She was smart and observant, maybe she would be useful later.

The night they sat planning, Kortain and Garrus were in their element. Ideas were being tossed between them, both displaying their brilliance and genius. The plan was formed, and they needed to act now. They needed Malakhe, their Salarian Omni Tool expert. He had so many programs running on his left arm than anyone thought possible and they needed him now. Kortain left early in the cycle to wake him and bring him back to the base, as it was one of their rules to avoid comm channels whenever possible.

Garrus looked over the plan again and again while Kortain was gone, trying not to marvel in his own brilliance. This was a very good plan, but he knew he had to cool his head if he wanted it to succeed without any problems. This was something his time on Omega was teaching him. He was learning the importance of remaining calm and blending in. On Omega, he had to blend in. These people could spot a man of the law from a mile away.

Akeeni had quietly sauntered in the room, looking over his shoulder at the datapad he was engrossed in.

"You were brilliant tonight" Her voice cut through the silence and Garrus jumped. She startled and began apologising.

"Hey, you can't just sneak up on a guy like that when he's about to become a wanted man," He joked. "He can get a bit trigger happy."

Akeeni laughed softly and sat down nervously in her brother's chair. Garrus went back to his data pad and made a few alterations. Dividing his men would be tricky, but he had figured out who worked best with whom. Kortain would lead the second team, this was his plan too after all, he knew it just as well as Garrus did. Kortain could take that grumpy Batarian bastard and his explosives, Garrus was sure he could arm his own bombs. Shepard had put him in charge of explosives more than once, he was sure after a quick refresher he would remember exact-

"I meant it, you know..." The sharp voice said again, crackling slightly. Garrus looked up from the datapad and directly into Akeeni's piercing eyes. "You were brilliant tonight."

Garrus' calm was damaged, he knew that look. It had been a while since a Turian woman had given it to him, but he remembered it well. He opened his mouth to speak but she left her chair and stood before him and his thought disappeared. He turned in his chair to her and she awkwardly straddled his lap, lifting her long skirts around her knees. One hand on his back, and one around his waist, she turned her neck to him and purred quietly.

Garrus was torn between several emotions at once. He had to stay focused on this plan and he could not piss off his teammate by having sex with his sister...and he could not stop his imagination.

_Five little delicate fingers on his back are digging softly into his skin. Her neck is soft, creamy and pulsing with red blood. Soft lips turned away from him, eyes closed. Her smell...how can he remember it after so long...?_

He could not open himself up to that again. However, this thought was being strongly over ridden by a little nibbling thought in the back of his head, reminding him exactly how long it had been since he felt release with any woman, let alone a young, untouched Turian girl with an amazingly thin waist. Looking back, Garrus liked to think that when he grabbed her shoulders next, it was to deny her and get back to his work, and not to pull her close and take her right there on the table. But Akeeni jumped off his lap and out of his grip as the sound of footsteps came up from the stairs. Kortain had returned with the Salarian, who looked remarkably awake for this early in the cycle. Garrus mentall shook off the heat rising in his stomach, focused himself and explained the plan to Malakhe.

The plan was set and ready to be sprung. Garrus waited at one of the locations with half of the team, while Kortain waited over the other side of Omega with the other half. The mines were set, their guns were ready and everyone felt good. The gangs would not see this coming.

Malakhe had spent the entire previous day recording, snipping and creating two different transmissions. As a single transmission was sent in from an off world ship, it was intercepted and the two fake ones were sent to the two receiving merc gangs. They were directed to two separate locations where Garrus and his men waited, perched high above the ground on tall cargo containers. The locations were tricky. There was going to be a lot of gunfire and explosions, and they wanted absolutely no civilian casualties. He was sure these were suitable, but his mandibles still twitched nervously as he surveyed the cargo dock, hoping he wouldn't spot an innocent head wandering in the aisles.

Soon enough, they had received the signal, and a group of heavily armed Batarians walked in. Garrus and his men were dreadfully outnumbered. He quickly surveyed the top of the room. His men were all in their positions, perched on top of the supply crates that had been arranged to cut off any chance of escape to the back of the cargo dock. A brief beep in his ear signalled that Kortain had received his group of thugs. Garrus quietly signalled from his omni tool, and somewhere in the depths of Omega, Malakhe hacked into the stations old security system and over rid the locks on the door. Two small beeps sounded in his ear and his mandibles splayed briefly in a large grin. Only one group was getting out of here alive. He sent the final signal to Kortain, just as the thugs started to wonder where the other gang was.

Lining up one four eyed head in his scope, Garrus pulled the trigger and the Batarian dropped dead to the ground. He ducked quickly behind his cover and immediately heard bullets raining in his direction. He detonated the explosives the surly Batarian gave him earlier, and an inferno broke out below him. The screaming began instantly and he gave the signal to his men. They all stood up from their cover and fired down into the pit of flaming Batarians. Garrus kept his cool amongst the chaos. He continued to line up heads and fire indiscriminately until no one remained alive. His men stopped firing and in the silence they looked around the dock warily. All eyes eventually fell on Garrus.

The last signal was sent to Malakhe, who triggered the fire system (that had to be repaired and cut from the alarms earlier) and the fire was soon doused underneath a downpour of white chemical. Seconds later he heard the door click as the lock was released. He signalled his men to come down from their posts and they all headed out of the cargo dock, leaving the dead thugs where they lay.

As they split up to walk through the populated areas of Omega and return to the base, Garrus heard Kortain's voice in his ear.

"Mission accomplished on my side, Boss. We're in business."

There was a quick debrief back at the base, Malakhe listened in on the Comm channels and relayed the reaction from the separate gangs. At first, each gang blamed the other for the attack, but word spread quickly and soon the news that every merc who went to receive that shipment was dead. They knew it now. They had definitely been targeted.

Meanwhile, a transmission was sent from the off world supply ship. They had waited long enough, and had left Omega, reluctant to do business with the gangs again. Garrus made a mental note that he could have used the goods, and that he would add that to his plan next time. But as far as large scale operations went, this was a very good start.

Still pumped from the action, but completely exhausted, he retired to his room. His exhaustion left him as he turned on the light and saw Akeeni, lying on his bed, completely naked. They stared hard at each other, and Garrus locked the door. She looked nervous, but there was a definite look of fierce determination in her eyes. Garrus stripped his armour off and had joined her on the bed in a matter of seconds. The victory of the day had been like foreplay to him. Finding her in his bed was exactly what he needed. His mind was empty. He thought of nothing but the tough, slender body beneath him.

Neither said a word as he gently marked her neck, signalling what he was going to do to her. She writhed beneath him, the fear of her inexperience left her as he directed her movements and held her roughly in his arms. He would teach her how to do it. She loosened up, and soon they were gripping, clawing and nibbling their way over each other's bodies. Her body was so slender, even compared to his. He was older, thicker and hardened, but he still relished being able to use his full force against his mate again.

He firmly turned her until she was on all fours and with long, hard movements he brought her fully into her womanhood. His pace gradually quickened, and she began to eagerly push back to meet him, almost matching his force. He stayed in control and watched how she reacted to his movements. She had well and truly worked through the pain and was approaching her first ever climax. When he saw her throw her head back and snarl, he quickened his pace again increasing her pleasure. Akeeni gripped the head of human designed bed with such force that a part of it snapped off. She lost her balance and fell forward, Garrus falling on top of her. With her back pressing against him, he gripped her hips and with a few hard thrusts reached his own powerful climax. Still not saying a word, they arranged themselves on the bed and fell asleep against each other.

He didn't remember it in the morning, but Garrus dreamt of a milky white hand stroking his fringe, while a soft voice whispered goodbyes into his ear.

Archangel was born soon after that mission. He cycled his men around most of the time, not wanting the gangs to notice any constants except himself. He wanted them to think of him as their threat. Not because he wanted to play the hero, he just wanted the thugs to focus their rage on him. If the worst should happen, they could come after him and his men could escape, unnoticed. It worked. Everyone knew about Archangel. Stories and theories about who he was ran rampant around Omega and everyone wanted to talk about what he would do next. The gangs tightened their security, but Archangel always managed to break through and destroy their plans. His team's tactics got smarter and their missions got bolder. They recruited more, and eventually Garrus recruited a Turian named Lantar Sidonis. The man he would come to despise more than anyone else in the galaxy.

Akeeni often found her way into his bedroom at night. They remained slightly distant around the team, neither working up the courage to tell Kortain about their affair. He enjoyed her company, regardless. She looked up to him, and he knew she looked to him for protection. Akeeni was often curious about Garrus' life before Omega. He told her vague stories devoid of any real details. He was too reluctant to tell anyone here about who he really was, even the innocent woman who shared his bed. He liked her, but she only ever saw the outside, the facade of the cocky vigilante. She didn't know he was once a cop. She did not know he worked close to humans in catching a fellow Turian. She did not know he felt deeply for his Human commanding officer in those days. A part of him was reluctant to corrupt her. Or maybe he just wanted her to only see Archangel, not Garrus.

Garrus had begun to think of Shepard in a new way. For the first time since the accident aboard the Normandy, he began to look at her as a person who had left his life. He didn't know whether or not to hate himself for it. He was doing the best he could on Omega, trying to make this new life of his work. But in his new life he did not feel the closeness he felt before with his friends in the military, in C-SEC and then aboard the Normandy. Was it because he was their leader? Was it because he was so careful to hide his identity? He often wondered if he had become too jaded to accept true closeness again, and soon enough these musings became fact for him. A cool exterior covered the passionate underlay to help him survive Omega. The exterior had just hardened and set over him. That's just how it had to be from now on.

He had just begun to accept his new life, when Sidonis sold him out to the gangs, and they came to his hideout and slaughtered his team. Garrus left his men at his base, and he went to help Sidonis on a mission of his own. But Sidonis was not at the meeting point and Garrus quickly became suspicious. A black pit forming in his stomach, he hurried back to the base.

The gangs retreated back across the bridge as they heard word of him returning. They wanted him to see the dead bodies of his men. They wanted to give him that feeling of dread as he found each one of them. Of course, they had not counted on him not letting them cross the bridge again.

Kortain and one of his Human team members were still alive when Garrus returned. Kortain was in bad shape. He had a bullet in his throat and dark blue blood was spilling out onto the floor as he struggled to breathe. Feeling his blood boiling at the sight of his men, butchered beyond recognition, Garrus lost his cool exterior. A savage hate rushed over him like he had never felt before. He should have run. He should have left the hideout and tried to at least save his own life, but his temper flared and he found himself destroying parts of his own apartment as he found each body.

The gurgling of Kortain broke him from his rage. He ran to his friend, and he quickly scanned the rest of the room looking for a smaller, feminine corpse. Kortain grasped his leader's hand with force, as if he could squeeze more life out of Garrus' talons. The wound in his throat was deep and wide. Garrus knew that no amount of medi gel would help him out of this.

"Ake-Akeeni..." Kortain started, but stopped to draw a long gurgling breath. "Gone..."

Garrus growled and returned Kortain's painful grip. Kortain shook his head and tried to prop himself up.

"No...off-offworld...thought...knew that bas-bastard was no good..." He took another slow and painful breath, and a new surge of blood spilled out over the floor. "Told her...to go...clan...she's safe"

Kortain violently shuddered and spasmed. Garrus tried to steady him. It took a long time before the wounded Turian calmed and stopped wheezing long enough to talk again.

"Should have told...told you, boss..."

His last breath was rough and messy and it made Garrus hurt to see it. Blood ran freely from his neck now, staining Garrus' armour. His body slackened and draped backwards over Garrus' legs. Garrus wanted to tell Kortain about him and Akeeni. He deserved to know. He had gotten the poor bastard killed, he could have at least told him he was also screwing his sister to really let the guy know what a low life he had been following. But Kortain, who had only ever been a loyal team member, lay lifeless on the floor now. It was too late.

Garrus heard distant shouts, and he knew it was for him. He cooled again, pushing past his internal fire, and set off an emergency protocol from his Omni tool. He had it set up, hoping never to use it. Doors were locked tight, and some were jammed. He had selected this apartment as his base heavily on the placement of the bridge. He could not believe the idiots were stupid enough to retreat back and give him a chance to defend himself. He readied his rifle, and crouched in a pre approved spot overlooking the bridge. If they were giving him the chance, he was sure as the spirits going to take it.

It took almost four days for them to get their act together, but they had finally begun to move. His head was swimming as he put his helmet on. He was exhausted, beaten and finished. Most of all, he felt he was ready to die. But, despite his pain, every part of him yearned for a fight. He readied his weapon and watched the commotion behind the barricade. Shepard had removed her smouldering helmet and had lined her shot up. He heard her grunt softly as she fired and the bullet hit home. His mind shot back to the days of sniping Geth with her, and he popped a used heat sink and lined up his own target.

Two lightly armoured mercs jumped the barricade and they each took one out. He heard her chuckle over the sound of the gunfire, and he felt so ready to be with her. He took another one down and she was behind him, her hand on his shoulder. Garrus lined up another and sniped him with military precision. The heat sink was popped and he heard her voice call out the location of the next group.

He took them out, still sharp with his reflexes. Shepard smiled at him through dark, messy hair. She looked like she could not wait to be with him too.

He aimed his rifle down to the Barricade, and she had disguised herself as one of them and was talking to two other mercenaries. He took down one unarmoured Human that had rushed ahead of her. Two more had snuck along on either side of the bridge, and he needed her help to take them out quickly. She ignored him and continued talking to the other two mercs. He shot down the two men by himself and looked back at Shepard. One of the mercs she spoke to...did not fit in. She wore a tight latex suit. Not really a common thug outfit. Garrus blinked his eyes a few times and looked at the trio again through his scope. The other man was definitely a veteran mercenary. The Blue Sun symbol tattooed on his neck was a giveaway. But he was not in the Blue Sun uniform...

Garrus hastily took down some more thugs and looked back at them. Shepard was still there. She had not moved to cover his back, or returned to his side to be with him when they broke through. He looked closer...her hair was longer, messier. She had peculiar orange scars on her cheeks. Her face, her hair and the way she stood with her eyes on the backs of the men running past her made her look so real. Garrus grunted with surprise. He was either having the most vivid hallucination ever, had fallen asleep again or...she was actually standing down there.

Garrus loaded a concussive round and fired at her. Shepard reacted, and looked up at him. He popped his heat sink and she was spurred into action. Shepard and her two companions fired in the group that had run ahead of them. Garrus switched back from concussive rounds, and continued firing at the thugs around Shepard. The trio took them all by surprise. She had gunned down quite a few before they realised and started firing back at her. It was not long before they noticed their attempt at his life had been foiled again, and signalled the retreat.

Garrus heard her work at the door. He saw one unarmoured moron hiding behind a pillar, waiting for his moment. He heard the door open. He heard footsteps. He wanted to turn around, but he had to take this guy out before he was completely distracted by this unexpected reunion.

"Archangel?"

Now that was definitely her voice. It hung in the air. He loved how her voice did that. He always had. It commanded such respect. He briefly motioned to her to wait. Archangel? She had not realised it was him...

The idiot on the bridge tried to look out to get a shot of him. Garrus took him out easily. Now it was time. Now he had to turn around and face her. Using his rifle to help his weary body stand up, he walked over to a crate and sat back down, too exhausted and shocked to stand for long. He had removed his helmet, and saw the look of surprise and..._delight_...on her face. This was her. This was his Suuki. Contentment rushed over him. Every emotion he ever felt for her flooded his veins and powered him. He wanted to live. She had been shot out into space and left for dead. Yet here she was, very much alive. She would shoot him herself if she thought he was ready to be killed. He imagined her saying that, and smiled to himself.

"Shepard...I thought you were dead."

**I have never written an action scene before in my life, and here is your proof of that! **


End file.
